Not really a complete new CD by the German Electro-/Wave act DIORAMA, more a kind of collection of unreleased tracks recorded during some studio sessions, rare pieces, or remix works are featured here. "Repale" offers an excellent insight view of the band’s work ranging from real Futurepop anthems like "Drowned" or "Contradictive (yes = no version)" up to the both remix works done by KARTAGON ("Logic Friends") and FROZEN PLASMA ("Friends We Used To Know"). Also some slight Electro/EBM tunes are here with "The Girls (Bombay Overdose version)" or with "The Rich Are All Perverted" and both can satisfy. I must say that I am quite impressed how strong their compositions are and how easy they are able to realize their musically vision into listen-able tunes. The whole album gets never boring, it’s moreover a strong monument of the music of this introvert duo. Highlight of this almost 80 minutes long masterpiece is the "Chamber Version" of "Leaving Hollywood" where they place a fine melodic piano line with smooth vocals – a track you won’t forget already after the first listen! There are not too many releases out of this music genre which get consumed over and over again – and also my "outer-scene" wife likes it a lot! I think there can’t be any better words to describe how marvelous this release is!

Total Macchina is a side project of John Langdon (a.k.a. Inform3r) and Katya Casio which are both active also as Hong Kong Counterfeit. DREAM MACHINE is their first release and it contains ten gems of electronic purity. The sound cherishes '80s but John and Katya for sure dig also electronic music of the '70s. Listening to tracks like "Elephant storm" you immediately think about Jean Michel Jarre (of the Oxigene or Magnetic Fields period) or Kraftwerk when you listen to "Cash register". Total Macchina balance really well the dance bits with the experimental side of their music, thanks to the dissonating melodies or the arrangements (most of the tracks are instrumental), maybe. This blend of rhythms and research of the inusual (check "Grid jumper", "Valley of the kings"or "Faded photograph") create a sort of dark vein that give to their music something that isn't that normal to get nowadays: creativity. Great album that makes you wish for more! Follow them...

In 2000 Toronto-based Lal released "Corners" and cut out a little niche of fans for themselves that kept growing as they started to play with a live band and got to open for Nelly Furtado, Terry Callier, Roy Ayers, State of Bengal and others. I haven't heard their debut record, which is said to be "gritty", but I listened to its following October 2005 "Warm Belly High Power" for about 5 times now, and have let myself be captured every time by how sublimely and unnoticeably it can carry one away... Eclectic and multifaceted, this Canadian outlet effortlessly maneuvers through picking and borrowing from the sonic traditions of Northern Europe, South Asia, Latin America mostly, and if you wanna mention every little detail, you could possibly add West India and Africa... In this hyper-geographic intense and hot magma of sound palettes, Rosina Kazi, who at times sounds like a more relaxed version of Furtado herself flirting with the ever so vocally quoted Beth Gibbons, nonchalantly weaves through her partner's Nick Murray's elaborate textures made of lo-fi, slow-motion breakcore, trip-hop, orchestral hints, dub, french musique concretisms, spanish guitars, world music percussions, electro-pop, minimal techno, downtempo, jazz, hip hop etc... The exquisite musicianship of instrumentalists Rakesh Tewari, Nilan Pereira, Santosh Naidu and Ian De Souza help convey the message properly, in fact this record is so well done that it has already been remixed several times by Nick Holder, Moonstarr (also on Public Transit Recordings), Nu Era (4 Hero) and Abacus. If you like albums that will make spin your head in every direction, definitely go for this one...

After "Serendipity", the Belgian collective Studio Pagol is back with a new full length album that carries on the tradition of giving birth to a heavily europeanized but clearly indian- and eastern-inspired magmatic and magnetic mixture of pop and electronica, fueled by great musicianship and live instrumentation. The thirteen tracks once again prove that they know exactly what buttons to press in the Pagol Studio. Female vocals. If you like Von Magnet, Radio Derwish, Mimetic, Mlada Fronta, Young Gods, Asian Dub Foundation, Muslimgauze, Chemical Brothers but also more extreme stuff you'll feel right at home with this action team!

Studio Pagol leading team member Marc Van Eyck's solo venture translates his main band's verb into a more agnostic and disillusioned version of minimal electronic music. Stripped of vocal performances (per say) and of the most obvious world music influences, Marc's own offering is a lot darker and mysterious. Squared minimal-techno beats, noise-polluted layering, scary sound reiterations, alien rhythmical figures, screaming tucked away distorted guitars and at times even plain old simplistic arcadic computer music. Personally I prefer the first half of the record over the second: the first three tracks seem stronger, more thought out, better arranged and more just sound like they have more to communicate. This is more like what you'd expect from some Warp, some M-Tronic or some Hive records releases.